Gift of Time

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief of Southern Writers Magazine

Don’t you just love receiving gifts?

Think how wonderful you feel when you see that gift. Wondering what it is.

Your eyes light up and your smile goes from ear to ear.

You know, there doesn’t have to be a holiday or special occasion to give gifts. In fact, some of the best gifts are when they aren’t expected. And one of the best is our time.

I think it is important to be giving of ourselves each day. To make someone’s day brighter is not just a blessing for them but also for us.

Writers also need gifts. The gifts we can give them are the words we write for a review after reading their book. We can also give them the gift of telling our friends on social media how much we enjoyed the author’s book. You could even take it a step further and send them a note on their social media about how much you enjoyed their book. Yes, this takes a little time…but not a lot. It’s doing something special for someone.

Just this effort would bring smiles and pleasure to the authors. These gifts last a long time.

To give of our time to someone else is the greatest gift besides love. it makes us feel special. Something we all need to feel.

Have you just recently read a book? Maybe you could spare a little time for the author. After all it took them months to write the book, possibly a year or more.

Is there someone you met at a conference that wanted to talk to you about how you got to where you are? Maybe because of your schedule you didn’t have the time to answer their questions and spend time with them. Get their name, address, phone number so you can set aside a few minutes to give them the gift of your time.

There is no better feeling on earth than when we help someone with our time. It’s the most precious gift we have to offer. Money you can make, time you can’t; it’s already set.

My Thankful List

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief of Southern Writers Magazine

We all at one time or another say we are thankful for something or someone.  Lately I have begun to wonder if we really understand what that word means and if we do in fact mean it.

I realized that I have many opportunities every day to thank someone for helping me and to tell them just how grateful I am they took some of their time and spent it on me.

All the moments in a day when someone gives me comfort or pleasure, I need to make sure to say thank you. I need to remember not to take them for granted.

Perhaps, I should make a list, I can call it my Thankful List, and make a note of each thing and each person I am grateful for and at the end of the week begin a new list.

Keeping the lists, I could check at the end of every month how many times each was listed during the month. Then spend a few moments reflecting on all the things I do have in my life to be grateful for showing me just how blessed I am.

Perhaps we could send a few thank you notes to some of these wonderful people so they would be blessed.

As writers it helps to remember to be thankful for the time we do have to write. That we are doing what we love and to be thankful for the people who support us and encourage us.

Let us remember each time we sit down to write; just how thankful we should be.

Latest Headlines

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief of Southern Writers Magazine

In our world today our latest headlines on the news comes from the internet. This is quite different from 30 or 40 years ago. Use to, the first thing people did upon awaking is to open their front door, go outside and pick up their paper thrown earlier by the paper boy. Even though the paper was still thrown on the lawn 20 years ago, the first thing people did upon awakening in the morning to get the news was turn on the TV.

Now, the paper is still thrown but the first thing we grab is our computer, the latest headlines sit on our home page. The world’s news at a glance.

As writers, you and I know ideas for stories are everywhere. You just have to look. Today we don’t even have to go further than our computers to find them. With technology, we can even do our research online.

I can’t help but wonder what will it be like in 20 years. Like with most things in life, our forward movement is the other side of a double-edged sword.  While it is great to have at our fingertips the world, so to speak, we’ve lost the adventure and excitement of experiencing-digging for nuggets.

Somehow, we need to find a balance between the ‘what was’ and the ‘what is’ in all stages. Writers seem to be able to do this. They are able to draw from both worlds…all worlds…the then, the now and the future and sometimes they combine all three. Writing creates stories from all times.